Five steps for creating a CPD seminar: part one
Creating a CPD takes considerable time and effort, so make sure you have the best chance of getting it right with our tried and tested process. Tweaked and refined over the years, we always follow these five steps to ensure we create a successful and memorable CPD. This month, we’re sharing the first three steps and the final two steps will be revealed in next month’s journal post.
Step 1: Define the topic
The first task? Speak to your sales team (assuming they are your intended CPD presenters). Agree on the main goal of your CPD. Do they want to raise awareness of a particular area of expertise? Perhaps they want to showcase their knowledge around a certain type of project. Once the aim is clear, brainstorm between three and five topics. Then sit down with your sales colleagues to choose one to move forward with. Make sure you stick to that one! Don’t be tempted to cover too much in a single session – it’s much better to keep additional material for a future CPD.
Step 2: Outline the narrative
What are the key points you want to cover? How are you going to deliver an engaging story throughout the seminar? Although you’re delivering a lecture, effective CPD delivery is all about storytelling. You’ll only have around 45 minutes to engage your audience and get your points across, so you’ll need to think about how the story is going to flow.
Create a storyboard that clearly shows the CPD’s main sections and key points. This will help you determine whether you have covered all your points, or spot if you are trying to do too much. Present the storyboard to your prospective CPD presenters to ensure you’re all on the same page (or storyboard!).
Step 3: Develop a draft
It’s easy to get stuck at this stage: you’ve got a great storyboard but how do you start to turn that into a compelling presentation? The important thing is simply to start – you can always edit it later. Your process might look like this:
Create a slide for the cover.
Add 3-4 slides to introduce your brand.
Include a cover slide for each new section.
Add 3-4 slides into each section, with a few bullet points on each.
Don’t aim for perfection, just add enough slides to include all the points on your storyboard. On each slide write some very rough bullets or notes, for example, “On this slide we’ll talk about X, Y, and Z”.
Next, start to think about visuals. Which images, videos, or graphics will work best? Where might you place them within the presentation? Insert them in the correct sections as placeholders.
When your rough draft is more or less complete, we recommend you run through the draft slides with your CPD presenters. This is a second chance to check you’re on the right track. It’s also an opportunity for the presenters to suggest ways to refine the content and narrative, and add specific examples or facts based on their experience.
And there you have the first three steps to creating a successful and memorable CPD. From experience, we find that spending time developing the narrative is really worth it later on in the project, as you can keep referring back to the storyboard to make sure you’re on the right track.